Please explain

[<pavel klebanov ne mediaone net>]

Can someone, please, explain these lines of code.
(The example does not give sufficient explanation...)
  int x, y;
  GdkModifierType state;

  if (event->is_hint)
    gdk_window_get_pointer (event->window, &x, &y, &state);
  else
    {
      x = event->x;
      y = event->y;
      state = event->state;
    }
    
  if (state & GDK_BUTTON1_MASK && pixmap != NULL)
    draw_brush (widget, x, y);