Two thoughts: (1) use some sort of templating system. I use template.el (via perlnow.el) with emacs. You can probably find some way to do it that you like. (2) cut and paste. No, seriously. I think it's usually a mistake to require your test code to meet the same standards as your production code (think about it -- "test first programming" will get you stuck in an infinite loop if you need to test your test code).