Disappointment with triggers, error -747

Hi, We were trying to write an update trigger to evaluate one of the columns of the table being updated. The purpose was to avoid modification to the program that updates this table. After going round and round for some time, we realized that as the program was doing update abc set abc.* = abc_rec.* , we could not do what we want to do in the trigger (i.e. compute value of the one of the columns based on other columns.) The manual clearly states this. Previously, I worked with ORACLE 7.x database and there was no such limitation. We are on SE 5.X on AIX and SCO. Did anyone experienced similar situation? Is there any work around? Triggers anyway have very limited syntex. You have to call procedure to do anything. I think this is stupid. I tried looking at a copy of FAQ I had but it does not mention triggers at all! Sadru Fidai